With her heart beating in anticipation, Lina silently progressed forward, descending down the sloped cave. She walked with silent steps, suspecting that more than a few vampires lay in wait.
She encountered her first vampires in this section of the cave. Two vampires of medium age cowered in a shaded corner, terrified of venturing out into the light where the bullets and arrows would surely drown them if the sun didn’t burn them first. They didn’t notice Lina’s approach until she was near upon them. By the time they turned at the sound, Lina’s form already completely overwhelmed their vision. In a flash, she leaped upon one, tearing open his throat, then attacked the other, drinking away the last of his blood until his sight faded from blurriness into black.
Lina stepped out into the light of Great Hall next. The place only vaguely resembled its former splendor. The tiled floor was littered with rubble, collapsed columns and a great many vampire corpses, arrows and crossbow bolts sticking out of their bodies like porcupine needles. When she looked up, she now saw the sky instead of the columns and ceiling, and up there, standing at the edge of the crater, looking down at her, were the armed troops, with Flaviu standing besides them, nodding in her direction.
She entered the hallway, and before her stood a long row of doors, most of them closed. The whole hallway was enveloped in silence. The odor of vampires was palpable, but omnipresent. She had no sense where any living creature was. But as she moved closer to the kitchen, she heard the growing sound of a murmuring crowd.
Of a sudden two shadows approached her from behind and touched her on the arm. She was so frightened that she almost jumped on them immediately, but in the split second before she turned and would’ve had her teeth upon his neck, she recognized the face of Anton. Beside him was Vasile. Both of them carried two loaded crossbows, weapons that seemed more appropriate to the cramped space of the coven than their longbows.
“We’ve come to help you get the humans out,” Anton said.
“And you need a weapon,” Vasile said, handing her a dagger, which he’d kept sheathed on his belt.
“I’ll lead you to the pen,” Lina said, “Stay behind me.”
They followed as she cautiously walked them towards the kitchen. The room they found was a mess: many pots had been knocked over, red liquid spilled onto the ground, some broken, their shattered pieces littering the floor. A layer of dust covered everything and considerable debris was spread throughout the room. But there was Suma, as if oblivious to everything that was going on around her, cleaning up. She’d picked up all the spilled pots and made sure as much of the red brew was salvaged as was possible.
When Suma saw Lina, clothed in black, with two armed men standing at the entrance to the kitchen, she cowered in fear, hiding in the corner. Lina was about to ask her for the keys to the pen, when she noticed the door, slightly ajar. Lina pointed through the door, and Vasile and Anton entered, while Lina remained behind, watching Suma to make sure she didn’t attack.
When Vasile stepped inside, he heard the nearing sound of a massive crowd of murmurers, and he walked towards them. As he came in sight of the crowd, the sound, quickly faded into silence, and he saw there, in the faint shadows, several hundred human forms, whose heads all turned to him at once.
Vasile was difficult to see in the dark, but it was clear at first glance that he was not a vampire. Vasile announced, in a hushed voice, “We’ve come here to free you. We need to get out of here, now.”
A wave of cheering started to roll through the crowd, but Vasile strenuously tried to stop it, indicating that they should be quiet.
The crowd quieted once again and Vasile was ready to lead them out, when a small shape started pushing through the crowd to get to the front of it. After a few moments, the face of Constanta pushed through and, looking in Anton’s directions, asked, “Anton is that you?”
When Anton saw her he ran forward and grabbed her in his arms, hugging her as tightly as he could and kissing he all over. “I knew it,” she said to him over and over again as she smiled with joy, “I told them you’d come.”
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